﻿xx INTRODUCTION. 



of watery action on their fine serrate edges incline us to believe that Machairodus ranged 

 down, like JElephas meridionalis, from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene period, and was a 

 contemporary of the tichorhine rhinoceros and the spelaean hysena. 



Genus Felis. Species Felis spelaa, Goldfuss. — The opinion that we propose to 

 advance with reference to this species differs considerably from that of all the authors who 

 have preceded us in their inquiries. The reason for it will be specially detailed in the 

 monograph upon the genus, the first part of which is contained in the present publica- 

 tion. We consider that, although differences may be found in all the parts of the skeleton 

 of F. spelaa, which, at first sight, appear to separate it specifically from the lion, that they 

 are not too great to be fairly ascribed to variation within the limits of the species. Re- 

 mains which can in no way be distinguished from those of the lion occur both in the 

 caverns and river-deposits ; and although the larger feline bones show us, as we have 

 said, considerable differences, the examination and comparison of a large series, proves 

 that the characteristics of lions are invariably shown, and very generally in an exaggerated 

 form. We feel obliged, therefore, to consider Felis spelaa as a large variety only of the 

 Felis leo, that differs far more than the latter from the tiger (Felis tigris). The fact of 

 the tiger now having an extended northern range round the sea of Aral, the district 

 of the Altai, and in Northern Tartary, and of its living with some of the Pleistocene species 

 that have survived in those areas has inclined some naturalists, among whom is the late 

 Dr. Falconer and M. Lartet, 1 to consider it identical with F. spelaa. Up to the present 

 time there is no evidence that the tiger has ever existed in Britain, or, indeed, in Europe, 

 the fossil remains upon which the European range of the species in Pleistocene times is 

 based bearing, without exception, leonine, and not tigrine characteristics. 2 



A convenient method of classing the remains of the fossil lion is to consider the larger 



inventory of half my collection, comprising all the genera and their 'species, including the Cultridens 

 (= Machairodus latidens, Owen) ; there were hoards, but I must specify jaws of the elephant, and tusks, 

 with the teeth in the sockets, the bone of which was so bruised that it fell to powder in our endeavour to 

 extract it, a rare instance of the teeth occurring in jaws or gums. The same may be observed of the jaws 

 of the rhinoceros, one portion alone of which was saved, but the teeth of both were numerous and entire. 

 The jaws of the elk (Megaceros Hibernicas) , horse, and hysena, were taken out whole. The teeth of the 

 last two were gathered in thousands, and in the midst of all were myriads of rodentia. The earth, as may be 

 expected, was saturated with animal matter ; it was, to use the expressive words of my fellow-labourer 

 Walsh, fat with the sinews and marrow of more wild beasts than would have peopled all the menageries in 

 the world." 



1 ' Cavernes du Perigord,' p. 21. Dr. Falconer's opinion, that the tiger of Northern Asia had no 

 community of origin with, or, in other words, differs specifically from, the tiger of Bengal, is by no means 

 confirmed by the description of one killed on the shore of the Sea of Aral, by Commander Bukatoff 

 ('Journ. Geograph. Soc.,' 23rd vol., p. 95). — "A real royal tiger of a beautiful orange colour, with 

 broad black stripes, uncommonly fat, and six feet four inches long from the nose to the beginning of 

 the tail." 



2 The naturalists who consider the lion of Barbary, Senegal, Persia, and India to belong to distinct 

 species, will also consider F. spelcea, as specifically distinct from all the living species. 



